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Language Skills

R
Python
Bash
SQL
C++
C

Disclaimer

Last updated on 2022-06-10. Source code is available here.

Main

Taylor Dunn

I am a data scientist and statistician with five years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, and an academic background in computational physics. I enjoy working in collaborative environments on hard problems with modern technologies and methods.

Education

M.Sc., Physics

Dalhousie University

Halifax, NS

2016 - 2014

B.Sc., Physics, Honours (minor Mathematics)

University of Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown, PE

2014 - 2009

Experience

Biostatistician

Ardea Outcomes

Halifax, NS

current - 2017

  • Worked on global clinical trials and patient-centered research across multiple disease areas.
  • Assisted in study design, including the development of study protocols, statistical analysis plans, and data management plans.
  • Performed data collection, analysis, reporting, and interpretation. Aided in database maintenance and monitoring.
  • Conducted research in patient-centric outcomes, resulting in several peer-reviewed publications and presentations for scientific meetings and industry clients.
  • Led internal project management to ensure tasks are completed according to timelines. Communicated professionally with external stakeholders throughout projects.
  • Developed internal R software for effective, reproducible, and well-documented workflows.

Teaching Assistant

Dalhousie University, Department of Physics

Halifax, NS

2015 - 2014

  • Course: Introduction to Numerical Programming.
  • Aided undergraduate Physics students in exploring and modelling physical systems in Python.
  • Ran weekly tutorial sessions and marked assignments.
  • Gave lectures when the professor was absent.

Undergraduate Researcher

University of Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown, PE

2014 - 2011

  • Worked in a computational physics lab under supervision of a senior faculty member.
  • Developed software in C and C++ to simulate molecules and perform data analysis.
  • Presented results in various settings and formats (posters, presentations, papers).

Help Centre Tutor

University of Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown, PE

2014 - 2011

  • Ran weekly tutorial sessions where students would come for assistance in various subjects (physics, calculus, statistics, etc.).

Laboratory/Teaching Assistant

University of Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown, PE

2012 - 2010

  • Assisted with student instruction, equipment setup and marking of undergraduate physics labs.




Selected Data Science Projects

Predicting bike ridership in Halifax

N/A

N/A

2022

  • An end-to-end machine learning project to predict daily bike ridership in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
  • Deployed as a Shiny dashboard and REST API on Google Cloud Platform.

Canadian COVID-19 Dashboard

N/A

N/A

2022

  • A dashboard built in Shiny that reports and visualizes the latest COVID-19 numbers in Canada.

canadacovid

N/A

N/A

2022

  • An R package to pull Canadian COVID-19 data from a public API.

gasr

N/A

N/A

2021

  • An R package for simulating and analyzing goal attainment scaling data.

dunnr

N/A

N/A

2020

  • A personal R package of plotting templates and functions that I commonly use.



Selected Data Science Writing

Predicting bike ridership

tdunn.ca

N/A

2022

Canada COVID-19 data in R: creating a package

tdunn.ca

N/A

2022

  • Detailed my steps and thought process in developing an R package that pulls Canadian COVID-19 data from a public API.

Ordinal regression in R

tdunn.ca

N/A

2020

  • A theoretical and applied walkthrough of conducting ordinal regression in R, with both frequentist and Bayesian approaches.



Publications

Patterns of Symptom Tracking by Caregivers and Patients with Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment: Cross-Sectional Study

Journal of Medical Internet Research

N/A

2022

  • Applied a machine learning algorithm to online user profiles, completed by caregivers of people with dementia, to predict disease severity. Analyzed the characteristic symptoms at different stages of disease.

Use of Patient-Reported Symptoms from an Online Symptom Tracking Tool for Dementia Severity Staging: Development and Validation of a Machine Learning Approach

Journal of Medical Internet Research

N/A

2020

  • Trained and evaluated various machine learning algorithms to predict patient dementia stage based on symptoms reported in an online app.

The Symptoms Targeted for Monitoring in a Web-Based Tracking Tool by Caregivers of People With Dementia and Agitation: Cross-Sectional Study

Journal of Medical Internet Research

N/A

2019

  • Analyzed and characterized the symptom of agitation in dementia from web-based reports provided by caregivers.

Evaluating the Applicability of the Fokker-Planck Equation in Polymer Translocation: A Brownian Dynamics Study

Journal of Chemical Physics

N/A

2014

  • Through computer simulations, provided empirical evidence of the validity of the Fokker-Planck formalism for polymer translocation dynamics.



Selected Presentations

What is the minimum number of goals required per subject for goal attainment scaling trials: a simulation study.

International Society for Quality of Life Research Conference

Remote

2021

  • Source code available on GitHub.

The Goal Attainment Scaling Method is Robust to Violations of Normality in Goal Scales: A Simulation Study.

The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research Europe Conference

Remote

2021

  • Source code available on GitHub.

Beyond Patient Journals - Using GAS to Capture the Patient Voice

WorkCast Webinar

Remote

2021

A review of goal attainment scaling in clinical trials

International Society for Quality of Life Research Conference

Remote

2020

Transitioning a patient-centred dementia symptom tracking tool from the web to mobile

Alzheimer’s Association International Conference

Los Angeles

2019

Development and Validation of a Patient-Centered Outcome Measure for use in Dementia Drug Trials

The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research Conference

New Orleans

2019

A Semi-Standardized Symptom Menu to Facilitate Goal Attainment Scaling in Dementia Drug Trials: Comparison with Traditional Approaches

The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research Europe Conference

Copenhagen

2019

Modelling Host-Pathogen Dynamics of Salmonella.

The New Bacteriology Conference

Royal Society, London, UK

2016

Modelling Growth in Host-Pathogen Dynamics.

Chemical Biophysics Symposium

University of Toronto

2015

Studying polymer translocation with dissipative particle dynamics.

Atlantic Undergraduate Research and Astronomy Conference

Dalhousie University

2014

Polymer translocation dynamics through a nanopore.

Atlantic Undergraduate Research and Astronomy Conference

University of Moncton

2013

Studying polymer translocation dynamics with dissipative particle dynamics.

UPEI Science Undergraduate Research Conference

UPEI

2013

Polymer translocation dynamics through a nanopore.

UPEI Science Undergraduate Research Conference

UPEI

2012

Conformational correlation times for a tethered polymer.

UPEI Science Undergraduate Research Conference

UPEI

2011

Honours and Awards

Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship

N/A

N/A

2016 - 2014

Undergraduate Student Research Award (NSERC)

N/A

N/A

2014 - 2012

The Robert Haines Memorial Science Award of Merit

N/A

N/A

2013

ACEmat Award in Computational Modelling of Materials

N/A

N/A

2013

City of Charlottetown International Ambassador Award

N/A

N/A

2012

Physics Department Prize in Modern Physics

N/A

N/A

2011

Global Issues Excellence in Writing Competition (winner)

N/A

N/A

2010

University of Prince Edward Island Full Tuition Scholarship

N/A

N/A

2009

High School Chemistry Prize (BioVectra)

N/A

N/A

2009